The NICE Guidelines

The NICE Guidelines Have Been Launched

On 23 March 2005, NICE published its guidelines for PTSD. These are highly recommended statements of the evidence on efficacy of different treatment approaches based on current clinical trial evidence. The following are some more information about the Guidelines themselves and press releases supporting and promoting these guidelines and the good they will do:

What to expect in terms of support from your GP and/or other Health Care Professionals.

How We Came To Our Decisions

Nice Guideline Conference Programme

The NICE Guideline on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is going to be launched in London on the 6th April 2005.

Please click on the above flyer front page, which you can print out and apply to attend the conference. There is an application form within the flyer, so please could you apply as soon as possible to prevent disappointment and confirm your place.

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Nice Second Draft Reviewed

The Second draft guidelines have been reviewed and the comments from stakeholders and organisations have been returned to NICE and addressed. The Final draft is now under construction and will be distributed to registered stakeholders and available on the NICE website.

The launch date and venue have also been agreed and it will take place on the 6th April 2005 at The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London.

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Nice First Draft Reviewed

The first draft guidelines have been reviewed and the comments from stakeholders and organisations have been returned to NICE and addressed. The Second draft is now under construction and will be distributed to registered stakeholders and available on the NICE website by mid October.

The initial feedback has been mostly positive and it would appear that the document has been generally well received. The final document is expected to be launched in March 2005.

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What Do You Prefer To Be Called?

I have been asked to do a survey for NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) who have convened a Guideline Development Group to produce Guidelines and Good Practice Points (inc. recommendations) for the Treatment of PTSD within and by the NHS.

“I am now on the NICE PTSD Guideline Development Group which is developing the first ever set of guidelines for the treatment of PTSD & service recommendations for the NHS to comply with. This will have a big impact on the all PTSD Sufferers throughout England & Wales (inc. the ex-service community and indeed in-service as well in getting effective help and support for combat veterans).”

The question which we would like your help and support on is the phrase or descriptive term used by professionals to describe those who suffer from PTSD. Throughout this Guideline we will be using a universally accepted descriptive term and this is where you all come in?

The following is a choice of the terms which have been given a kind of short list (if you like) as I was not happy on the original one proposed and put forward my suggestion. I will not tell you what my suggestion was but instead give to the list for you all to choose the descriptive term which you prefer to be used as follows:

Patient

PTSD Sufferer or PTSD Sufferers

People with PTSD

People suffering from PTSD

Service User

The deadline of April 25th to submit the final list of suggested terms to the group has now passed but here are the results in % terms (Complex PTSD was also voted for so I added this with my findings):

Although there is no guarantee that the term ‘PTSD Sufferer/s’ will be used, the very fact that they have asked for me to do a survey shows that they are serious about getting everything right in this very important document and including the sufferers and their feelings right from the start.

Thank you again for your help

Andy

If you Visit www.nice.org.uk you can find out more about what NICE is all about and the SCOPE that we have to work with in creating the Guidelines.